• Investment World
• eWorld
• Brand Line
• Mentor
• Life
• Brand Quest
• The New Manager
• Smartbuy

Stocks

• Quotes
• SE Diary
• Scoreboard
• Open-End Mutual Fund

Cross Currency

• Rates
  
  

Shipping

• Ports
  
  

Archives

• Yesterday
• Datewise
• Resources
• In Focus
• In Depth
• Events 2007

Group Sites

• The Hindu
• The Hindu ePaper
• Business Line
• Business Line ePaper
• Sportstar
• Frontline
• The Hindu eBooks
• The Hindu Images

The article on tea tourism (Business Line, June 27) was interesting and educative. The need of the hour is to resurrect India’s beleaguered tea industry and bring back some of its lost glory. What was the bread-winner for many poor families in the North-East of India has now been reduced to tourism activity!

The industry needs to focus on just two catchwords — improvement of productivity and quality. South India, some years ago, pursued high volumes and, in the process, quality took a back-seat, whereas the North-East, in particular Assam and Darjeeling, concentrated on quality, which is why it withstood the ‘storm in the tea-cup’.

Countries such as Kenya and Sri Lanka never compromised on quality. Wage hikes without a corresponding increase in productivity leads to negative growth, and this is exactly what has happened in India.

It would have been heartening to read that the tea industry is thriving yet again but the last straw is that it has turned to tourism!

Ashok Jayaram Bangalore

More Stories on : Letters | Tourism

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Modified controversy

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line